UK's data watchdog fines Facebook £500,000

Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal has been well documented over the past few months and has resulted in a fine of £500,000.

The fine was handed out by the UK's data watchdog which give Facebook the maximum possible fine set out in the 1998 Data Protection Act. For a company which posted a $13 billion profit last quarter, that's a drop in the bucket and regulators have said that it would have been “significantly higher” under the EU's GDPR regulations that arrived in May.

Take a look at our guide on how to keep yourself safe online.

The decision was made that Facebook failed to make suitable checks on its third party developers and apps using its platform which resulted in user data not being safe. Under GDPR regulations Facebook would have been fined £17 million which is roughly 4% of its global turnover.

This event, among others, helped spark a much wider awareness of data privacy which has resulted in several major companies including Google and Facebook to call for tighter data protection laws.

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